Stories From the Field

Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.(Matthew 25:40)

Year in and year out, U.S. foreign assistance helps millions of individuals around the world who are, in turn, deeply grateful for the care, compassion and hand-up. We offer some of their stories:

Photo: IMA World Health / Crystal Stafford

Ushindi, in Swahili, means “we overcome.”

Asha Wanda was on a two day walk to sell palm oil with 10 other women and six teenage boys from her village. On their second day, she recounts, "We were surprised by two armed men. They took us into the forest and they raped us, one after the other. When they were done with us, they took the young men and put a gun to their heads and forced them to also have sex with us. This was a great dishonor. These young men were like children to us. I didn’t tell my husband what happened because I was afraid he would leave me. " As if her story could not get worse, she continues, "Two months later, an armed group came to my village and took four men by gunpoint. My husband was among them. I never saw him again.”

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Asha's story is sadly not unique. Civil war and rebel groups have wreaked havoc on farming communities for years.

Asha is among 30,000 beneficiaries of Ushindi, the USAID-funded project overseen by IMA World Health and implemented by Heal Africa, to rehabilitate and reintegrate survivors of sexual violence. Beneficiaries receive psychosocial therapy, medical assistance for violence-related injuries and fistula repairs. In addition to medical services, safe housing, higher-level counseling, increased outreach, capacity building workshops and reintegration assistance are all services leveraged with USAID funding. USAID reports show that Ushindi has reached four times as many survivors as other projects with similar funding globally. Read more here.

Dinkie’s family had plenty of livestock before the death of her husband, but as a 50-year-old widow with 5 children in Ethiopia, her livelihood depended on rain-fed agriculture. When drought conditions limited her production to just one crop per year, she could not keep the livestock at the expense of starving her children, and had to sell most of it to cover food gaps. ″We were eating small portions of food twice a day just to sustain our lives.”

Thanks to Food for the Hungry (FH), a USAID Food for Peace partner, Dinkie received training on horticulture and fruit production and the project helped her construct a hand-dug well with a rope pump.

It may sound simple -- a hand dug well -- but that well is at the center of her ability to cultivate nutritional vegetables on arable land. She diversified her crops with seeds provided by FH -- tomato, Swiss chard, potato, cabbage and apple seedlings. Now she’s harvesting three crops per year. One harvest is still fed by the rains, but the other two are fed with water from her well. She’s feeding her children nutritious food, and earning extra income for clothing and school supplies by selling her seasonal vegetables. She’s been able to retain her remaining livestock and even improve her small home.

As the world watches countries hard hit by famine, Dinkie is a great example of resilience in action.

Hand dug well Photo: Food for the Hungry

Photo: Rabbi Ari Hart for IsraAID

As Syrian refugees arrived by small boat to the Greek Island of Lesvos, American Orthodox rabbi, Ari Hart, was there to bear witness, and to help.

"This elderly woman escaped from Syrian to Lesvos, Greece, with a wheelchair. Human smugglers placed her in the middle of the boat and folded the wheelchair at the back. She sat in the boat for hours unable to move, soaked.

"We lifted her and the wheelchair out of the boat and placed her in her wheelchair. I'm not sure how she made the miles and miles she'd may have had to traverse."

- Rabbi Ari Hart, American Orthodox rabbi volunteering with IsraAID.

The Community of Sant'Egidio is opening humanitarian corridors, helping to resettle refugees. Among them is this 10-year-old girl named Mariam, confined to a wheelchair for two years after being hit by a bullet in Damascus.

This young girl has seen more tragedy than most of us will see in our lifetimes. But with the aid of the Community of Sant'Egidio, she is starting a new life in the province of Turin, Italy, where she will undergo medical treatment.

Women in Uganda suffer one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. High fertility rates contribute to too many unintended pregnancies ending in abortion. While family planning is necessary to reduce unintended pregnancies, contraception prevalence is low, especially in rural areas, where it is used by only about 23 percent of women. Religious leaders are key influencers and can dispel harmful myths and provide accurate information about family planning and saving lives.

Christian Connections for International Health (CCIH) and its partner, the Uganda Protestant Medical Bureau (UPMB), conducted training for a diverse group of religious leaders, including Catholic, Muslim, Pentecostal and Protestant leaders to equip them to discuss and promote healthy timing and spacing of pregnancies.

Haitian farmer Lionel Philidor used to struggle to make a good income from farming coffee. She joined a local cooperative supported by Lutheran World Relief and learned about all stages of the coffee production process, including seedling nursery management. She began managing her own coffee seedling nursery, started making a real profit from her work, and was able to buy a house for her family in an area where her children and grandchildren could have better access to education.

Photo: Allison Shelley for LWR

Photo: Jake Lyell for LWR

Mr. Sevu Kanyasya and his 6-year-old daughter, Wuyua, plant seedlings in their garden in Makueni County, Kenya.

Sevu is able to farm and irrigate his fields in this arid county thanks to Lutheran World Relief’s WATER (Watershed Approach to Enhance Resilience) program.

This system provides water access to Sevu’s family and more than 1,800 other households in the region.

A man fetches water at a dispenser machine in Marsabit Town. The water ATM technology has come as a relief to residents. Photo: Irene Mwendwa for Nation Media Group

Water from an ATM?You bet!

To help strengthen community resilience, Food for the Hungry implements a USAID-funded water project in Kenya that draws water from a forest spring. Water is treated and then retailed to local residents through a pipeline to a water ATM.

More than 2,000 households now buy clean and affordable water for drinking and cooking through this dispenser system, which maintains a consistent and much lower price. In the past, people would spend days and nights lining up for water and still some would return home with empty jerry cans. Residents were wholly reliant on water trucks that charge high prices for this scare commodity, which many families cannot afford.

While more water is still needed in this parched region, the ATM project is a huge help and deeply appreciated. “This new technology has also improved the speed at which we get access to water and it has brought fairness,” says one resident.

Growing up in rural Bihar state, India, Mina Devi dropped out of school in the third grade because her family did not have the means to support her education. She now has a family of her own, and Lutheran World Relief is helping Mina and many other women like her to diversify the crops they grow.

“I don’t worry so much anymore now,” she says. “My life is secure now, and most importantly, my family is provided for.”

Photo: Jake Lyell for LWR

“Mi hija es mi vida.” (my daughter is my life) Photo: CMMB

Grimaldina’s daughter Luz, was 5 months when a tragic accident changed the child’s life forever. Baby Luz found a plastic bag and asphyxiated. Even though doctors were able to revive her, she suffered permanent brain damage which affected her mobility. A family friend told Grimaldina about CMMB’s rehabilitation program.

Because of her mother’s unwavering commitment and the support from CMMB’s team of physical and cognitive therapists, Luz has made significant progress. She is now able to better control movement in her hands, sit-up alone, crawl, stand and take steps with support!

Raul is 12 and has cerebral palsy. Five years ago, he could barely move. But everyone who sees him can't help but smile.

With his mother's determination and regular therapy with CMMB's Rehabilitation with Hope team in Peru, Raul is sitting up and can use his hands. The best part? Seeing this beautiful boy SMILE.

"The things we take for granted, someone else is praying for" Photo: CMMB

"I can walk thanks to you!" Photo: CMMB

When she was 7-years old, Abigail couldn’t stand or walk due to muscular atrophy.

But after receiving regular therapies through CMMBs Rehabilitation with Hope in Peru, one year later she is walking and building her strength.

It makes going to school so much easier.​

"If you can't fly, then run,if you can't run, then walk,if you can't walk, then crawl,but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward" - Martin Luther King Jr.

Millennium Water Alliance’s KALDRR WASH program, funded by USAID, helped 42,500 beneficiaries like this mother and children build latrines and hand washing stations. This kind of development helps keep an entire community healthier.

Distribution of wash basins, soap and jerry cans in Waat Payam, Nyirol County, Jonglei State, South Sudan. The distributions were funded by USAID/OFDA and served 5,030 households in the wake of the December 2013 resurgence of violence, which created waves of displacement.

Photo: Food for the Hungry

Photo: Food for Hungry/Kebede Lulie

USAID-funded emergency food distributions in Ethiopia’s Sekota district, where FH is helping to fight the effects of the El Niño drought. With help from USAID, FH and its Ethiopian partner organization, ORDA, are reaching more than 289,000 individuals with food aid.

Guatemalan mothers and babies aged 6-24 months receive the peanut-based supplementary food, Nutributter, as part of an FFP/IFRP program to fight malnutrition and stunting. More than 5,500 children benefited from the program.

Photo: Food for the Hungry

Photo: Food for the Hungry

The Bolivia Tomoyo dam and irrigation project, funded by USG Title II funding. Completed in 2003, it irrigated 500 hectares of farmland, brought safe water to 95% of the families in the area, and opened the doors for electrification.

The Nyalugana Land Reclamation Project (FFP) resulted in rehabilitation of 914 hectares of land from a swamp, utilizing 92 miles of canals, drains and ditches, providing more than 13,000 families with farmland.

Photo: Food for the Hungry/Tanya Martineau

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Faith for International Assistance (FIA) seeks to strengthen U.S. public support and funding for global health and development assistance through the voice and lens of faith. contact us at: susankbarnett@gmail.com